While working in a tight space such as under the hood of a car, people routinely encounter difficulties in positioning nuts, screws, and bolts in hard-to-reach places for fastening. Often times, a nut must be started at an angle and/or in a position obstructed from view. Unable to position the nut by sight, the person must position it by feel. During this process, it is common to drop or lose the nut. Countless mechanics working on cars and other assemblies have experienced the frustration of dropping and losing the fastener in some crook, cranny, or crevice.
In many hard-to-reach places, a magnetized screwdriver or other common tool is generally unsuitable for positioning a nut. A magnetized screwdriver may also be unsuitable for positioning and starting a screw when the target position is obstructed from view or when the screw is most easily started by hand. Furthermore, a telescoping magnetic pick-up tool is not always suitable for picking up dropped metallic objects.